I’ll Retire After Saving the World - Chapter 43

[ Chapter 43: Teacher and Student (3) ]

It was peaceful.

It couldn’t be more peaceful than this.

But why was it peaceful?

The world was going to end in twenty years.

Was it okay to be this peaceful?

“Um? Bangju? This hunter is investigating that.”

Whenever he asked about Bangju, the only response he got was that Lee Mi-sun was investigating it.

“More importantly, how are the kids doing? The dungeon entry is coming up soon, isn’t it?”

“I am the homeroom teacher of the magic class, you know.”

“And?”

“The rest of the kids aren’t my responsibility. Didn’t we already settle that?”

“Oh ho. How can you be so cold-hearted? As a teacher, you should take care of everyone.”

That’s why he checked on them from time to time. What more did they want from him…?

If they were going to make him work this much, they could at least give him a raise.

“Also, doesn’t Mr. Woo have nothing to do right now? The rune classes have been halted because of the dungeon entry preparation…”

“That’s because of the dungeon entry preparation.”

“Anyway, Seo-hyun is teaching magic.”

It wasn’t Kim Chae-min, but Park Seo-hyun’s name that was mentioned.

No, it wasn’t wrong, but saying it like that made his position seem awkward.

“It’s not like I don’t take care of the kids, though.”

…Saying it like that made it sound like he was overly attached to his position as the magic class homeroom teacher. Which wasn’t the case at all.

Damn it.

“Is that so?”

Hong Seok-young smirked. How did he end up like this? He still couldn’t figure it out.

“Please continue to take care of the kids, Mr. Woo.”

“……”

In any case, everything flowed peacefully.

The kids were working hard, and it seemed like Hong Seok-young and Lee Mi-sun were doing something about Bangju… In the original timeline, nothing special happened around this time either. Even dungeon breaks didn’t occur. And when they did happen occasionally, they were subdued without any damage.

So why did he feel so uneasy?

There was a saying in the hunter community that a hunter’s intuition was trash. It was a quite old adage. It was usually used to mock hunters who relied too much on their intuition and ended up letting their guard down.

Hunters with heightened senses received more information than others. So there was information that they instinctively perceived without going through their brains. It wasn’t wrong. In battles where lives were at stake, such intuition often saved lives.

But if they blindly trusted it and ignored the information right in front of them… those were the kinds of people who caused raid teams to be wiped out.

So a hunter’s intuition wasn’t something to be trusted. He agreed with that saying.

But even so, wasn’t it strange to be plagued by uneasiness for several days? There had to be a limit.

So he pondered what the cause was.

“……”

Was it because there was nothing to do?

“………”

Nah. That couldn’t be it.

Where else was there someone who balanced work and life as well as he did? His vacation days had piled up, but wasn’t that the same for everyone? When you worked, it was easy to forget about taking vacations…

…Wasn’t it?

……No, but it was boring not doing the usual things. Spending all this time on a single C-grade dungeon strategy was a waste of time.

Wouldn’t it be alright to continue the rune classes at least? To give the kids a chance to review…

“Hey! Oh, oh, oh! It worked! It really worked, didn’t it?!”

There was a commotion outside. Choi Jin-woo shouted loudly.

Curious, I stepped outside the teachers’ office container.

“Teacher! Look at this!”

Choi Jin-woo waved his arms excitedly when he saw me. It was the first time I’d seen him so excited since he cried after hearing Park Seo-hyun’s story.

“Why are you so… hm?”

“What do you think?”

It wasn’t hard to figure out why.

The playground was filled with fog. No, it was more like the fog was concentrated in certain areas. It stayed close to the ground, never rising above the knees. It was a white fog, swirling like dry ice.

I squinted my eyes. It was hard to see in the sunlight, but the fog was sparkling.

“You see it, right?!”

It wasn’t just Choi Jin-woo who was excited. Park Seo-hyun was also smiling with a flushed face. She didn’t look gloomy with her bangs down, nor did she look as picky as she did in Myeong-dong. She looked like an ordinary kid you could find anywhere.

I was worried, but it seemed she was getting along well with Choi Jin-woo. I hoped she would continue to grow up like this.

“It’s my grandfather’s magic!”

“…An inherent magic?”

Was Choi Jin-woo really that much of a genius?

“No, it’s not that.”

So my eyes weren’t deceiving me.

“He taught me one of the spells my grandfather used often. It’s a spell to brighten dark places, and it reveals hidden things, making it good for avoiding traps.”

“That’s a useful spell.”

“Right?”

Park Seo-hyun smiled brightly. I couldn’t tell if she was happy because her grandfather’s magic was praised or because Choi Jin-woo succeeded in casting it.

Maybe it was both.

Hong Seok-young also came out and praised both Park Seo-hyun and Choi Jin-woo before heading back in.

Hong Seok-young had completely entrusted the kids’ dungeon strategy to me. While this was supposed to be a test for the kids, I had a feeling it was also a test for me. Maybe I had shown too much knowledge about dungeons.

But saying I didn’t know what I knew would hurt my pride. And it wasn’t fair to leave the kids with someone who was weak in this area. If Hong Seok-young took over the strategy classes, he would surely bombard them with strange onomatopoeia.

‘Here, you go bam, and then when you hear a thud…!’

Only someone like me could follow his classes… I wondered what the students at the Hunter Academy or the pilot high school actually learned from him.

I stroked my chin for a moment.

They probably didn’t learn much in class, but a capable student stood before me. If I gave them some plausible words of encouragement, they might attribute their progress to me.

“Park Seo-hyun.”

“Yes?”

Park Seo-hyun, who had been chatting with Choi Jin-woo, clammed up. Look at her.

“The analysis?”

“I’m doing it, but…”

Park Seo-hyun’s shoulders gradually hunched.

“Didn’t Mr. Kim teach you the method?”

“Yes, yes… but I still don’t really understand… It’s my magic, but it’s too different from the magic my grandfather explained…”

With such different magic, Park Seo-hyun was clumsily mimicking light magic.

“Don’t think too complicated.”

He didn’t know what process the witch went through to become the Grand Mage of Shadows.

However, he was acquainted with several grand mages. Among them were those with disciples, and sometimes, he overheard what they said to their disciples.

“As you said, it’s your magic. You’re the one who knows it best.”

“……”

“Seriously, don’t think too complicated. Instead of being fixated on the fact that it’s light and shadow, think of it as an attribute. You use basic magic well, right?”

“But it’s different from basic magic….”

“It’s the same in that it uses magic. There’s a basic magic that lights a spark, right?”

Park Seo-hyun looked at him skeptically but then nodded. He gently dug the soil with his toe. Once a small hole formed, he took a discarded drink left by the kids and poured it in. A small puddle formed.

“Boil it.”

“What?”

“Raise the temperature. Boil the water. It’s easy, right?”

Park Seo-hyun hesitated for a moment before starting to draw a spell. Soon, the puddle began to boil.

“Stop.”

“Uh….”

“Now cool it.”

“……”

“Make it cold.”

Park Seo-hyun drew another spell. The bubbling puddle quickly calmed down.

“Keep going.”

“……”

“More.”

The puddle rippled, and then the surface began to freeze over with white frost.

“Stop. Understand?”

“……”

She didn’t seem to understand at all. He sighed.

“Heat and cold. If you classify these as attributes, they become fire and ice, or water. Completely opposite attributes. But what about the spells?”

“Spells….”

Park Seo-hyun looked at her hands, which had just been casting spells, with a confused expression.

“Not all magic works this way, but sometimes reversing a spell produces the opposite effect. I’m not a mage, so I don’t know much more, but….”

He shrugged.

“Think about how you could use the opposite attribute’s light magic.”

Because you’re a genius. Because you’re a genius.

“Your grandfather’s light magic probably has some similarities to your magic.”

“……”

“Start by reversing the spell. Who knows? You might discover something.”

Park Seo-hyun’s eyes darkened. She bit her lip and bowed her head. The hair she had tucked behind her ear fell forward like a curtain.

He quickly averted his eyes. It wasn’t good for his heart.

“From now on, it’s self-study. If you’re still unsure, ask Mr. Kim.”

“…Mr. Kim.”

She murmured softly without lifting her head.

“Can’t I ask the teacher?”

What was she talking about?

He poked her forehead with his index finger.

As he pressed on her forehead, she obediently lifted her head. Her wide-open eyes seemed far from the witch. Good. He needed to block the path to becoming a witch completely.

But that was that, and this was this.

“I told you, I’m not a mage, so I don’t know much.”

* * *

Originally, there were ten students in the first cohort of the Pilot High School.

So, there were also ten desks in the classroom. Of course, two of them were empty now.

Sometimes he thought about it. Even now, he didn’t feel that the classroom container was full, but how would it have been in the original timeline, with even fewer students?

Wouldn’t it have been suffocating?

If it had been him, he would have quit school.

There might have actually been someone who quit. There were hardly any records about the first cohort students of the Pilot High School…. Thinking that way, it might be remarkable that Oh Hyun-wook and Park Seo-hyun had endured and become renowned hunters, despite their shattered mental states.

Well, anyway, it wasn’t because of such unfortunate incidents that the students had left. After the Myeong-dong incident, the parents had forced them to quit out of anxiety.

Hmm.

Hong Seok-young had processed the two students for a leave of absence. It was possible because it wasn’t a proper school anyway.

Come to think of it.

“Yoo Hye-eun, student.”

“…Yes?”

Yoo Hye-eun, who had been groaning and twisting magic in her hands, looked up. As a result, the magic dispersed.

“Ah!”

“Lack of concentration.”

“Teacher…!”

“A hunter should be able to maintain focus in any situation.”

“I’m not a hunter….”

“…Oh, right.”

Healers were also awakened, but they couldn’t be considered combatants. Usually, they worked in hospitals rather than entering dungeons.

…Come to think of it, it might be okay if she wasn’t here. Even in such chaotic times, healers were welcomed everywhere.

No, she didn’t have proper guardians. If she got caught by a malicious guild like Seo Han-seong, she wouldn’t be able to escape on her own. It was right to think that Hong Seok-young was protecting her.

In the end, he died though.

He smiled at Yoo Hye-eun.

Let’s just think about what’s in front of us. She was alive now. That was enough. Little Yoo Ji-eun wouldn’t become a depressed high school girl smiling gloomily.

“Still, it’s the same. Do it again.”

“Ugh….”

Yoo Hye-eun pouted her lips and focused, moving her fingers. The pure white magic that blossomed at her fingertips intertwined like she was playing cat’s cradle. Pouting her lips when concentrating was just like that woman.

He remembered what he was going to ask initially.

“How’s your younger sister doing?”

“Ji-eun?”

Yoo Hye-eun’s hands, which had been weaving magic, paused.

“I heard she went to register as an awakened with the principal.”

“Ah, really, Yoo Ji-eun, she’s my sister but….”

“Why?”

“Oh, don’t even ask.”

Yoo Hye-eun dispelled the magic and shook her head.

“She keeps picking up weird ideas…. This morning, I barely stopped her from sticking her foot in ice.”

“Hmm?”

“She said that keeping her feet cold was good for magic circulation or something…. She’s really doing all sorts of strange things.”

“…….”

Was this why she had been anxious these past few days?

“Has your sister ever mentioned impurities in her blood vessels?”

“She said that was outdated and that she needed to find other methods. Yesterday, she was sitting and chewing lettuce, saying she needed to clean her stomach….”

To Yoo Hye-eun, it might seem like her foolish sister’s foolish antics… but what if she suddenly found some cult training center? With the impulsiveness of Yoo Ji-eun that he knew, it was possible. Even little Yoo Ji-eun had run to him, asking to be taken as a disciple.

If he wasn’t careful, he might lose a future pawn right before his eyes.

Damn. Did he have to worry about such things too? What was the principal even doing?